Clinton to Concede Delegate Race to Obama

I don't post here much, but I sort of feel it is my duty to post this in Brou's absence.

Clinton to Concede Delegate Race To Obama

I'm sure your resident Prola blogger will have many more eloquent words on the subject that I can muster so I will leave it at that.

75,000

A crowd of 75,000 people gathered around Barack Obama in Portland, Oregon.

Huckabee Crosses a Line

While giving a speech in front of the NRA, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee joked about an assassination attempt on Democratic candidate Barack Obama:

“That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak,” said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. “Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”

Smintheus, at Daily Kos, aptly notes:

This is about more than Mike Huckabee, with his bizarre habit of threatening to use violence in the political arena. This is about a Republican establishment that encourages, rewards, and lionizes those on the right who use threats of violence to expand the boundaries in public discourse of the "acceptable" demonization of Democrats. Where will it end?

Cheers for Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton has come to the defense of Barack Obama over recent attacks by George W. Bush and friends:

“President Bush’s comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is offensive and outrageous on the face of it, especially in light of his failures in foreign policy,” Clinton said. “This is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address.”

If this signifies a new (non-destructive) direction for the Democratic race—and if she can turn all of her attacks toward Bush and McCain—well then I might be changing my position on it and possibly on the idea of an Obama-Clinton ticket.

Keep It Up George

Bush criticizes Obama ... in Israel.

In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.

"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Keep it up George, because the American people aren't buying your bullshit anymore. Every time you pull a stunt like this, your party comes that much closer to losing the White House.

update:

McCain and Lieberman jump in.

Obama pushes back:

"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack," Obama said in the statement his aides distributed. "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."

Shenanigans

John McCon: I don't wan't to run a smear campaign, but the public demands it.

Superdelegates, part II

More superdelegates for Obama.

CNN story.

ABC points out that Obama has now taken the lead according to their superdelegate count. More at DailyKos.

Superdelegates

TPM is following up on Obama's recent meetings with uncommitted superdelegates.

Obama Wins North Carolina; Indiana Less Clear Goes to Clinton

With 99% of precincts reporting, Barack Obama is projected to win North Carolina by 14%.

With 95% of precincts reporting (as of 12:00 central), Clinton is ahead in Indiana by 2%, or 16,609 votes. Lake County, which is expected to go for Obama, is still out.

update:

Lake County is now reporting at 99% with Obama ahead 55%-45%. This puts Clinton at an overall, statewide lead of around 22,000 votes with 99% of precincts reporting.


another update:

CNN has called Indiana for Hillary Clinton.

MSNBC calls Indiana an "apparent" win for Clinton.

Bill Moyers

I can't even begin to express how much I love Bill Moyers, but this clip is a glimpse into why his shows have been among my favorite television programs for years. Compare this commentary to the sensationalist filth that is passed off as news and analysis on the cable networks.

And I give Moyers bonus points for wagging a finger at those hacks.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright: "Different Does Not Mean Deficient"

The entire video interview with Bill Moyers as well as a complete transcript can be found here. As always, Moyers does a great job of cutting through the sensational in order to get to the truth. Jeremiah Wright, in my opinion, comes off as intelligent and sincere. After watching this interview, the media's treatment of him seems absurd.




Wright also addressed the NAACP this weekend:




Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Update—Comments following Monday's speech by Rev. Jeremiah Wright refueled the outrage:



The entire speech can be found here, here, and here. The follow-up question and answer session can be found here, here, and here.

Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama responded to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's latest appearance with this:



In all honesty, with the exception of blaming the US government for AIDS (an a few other comments) I've found most of what I've heard from Wright to be acceptable—even reasonable. I do, however, wonder why he's decided to fan the flames lately. In light of this, I can understand the need for Obama to distance himself from Wright. I just hope he hasn't taken it so far that this escalates into weeks or even months of public bickering. I suppose that this could end up being good for his campaign (in the long-run), but it certainly wouldn't be good for the rest of us.

LA: McCain over Obama

A new Rasmussen poll has John McCain leading Barack Obama by 11 points in a hypothetical matchup in Louisiana. The same poll shows McCain leading Hillary Clinton by 22 points.

What exactly is Louisiana looking for here? More war? Greater economic inequality? Is Barack Obama right about "bitterness" leading people to vote on polarizing philosophical issues rather than on issues that have a more immediate and direct effect on them?

In a related story, the NRSC has released a shameful video which asks whether or not Sen. Landrieu will support Obama in light of his recent remarks. Lets see how the issue plays out in Louisiana.

Heterosexuals Only

MoJoBlog recently had a post about the Democratic presidential candidates' appeals to the "gay vote" in Pennsylvania which noted Barack Obama's weak stance on gay marriage. The Huffington Post also recently cited an article in The Philadelphia Gay News,which criticized Obama for ignoring gay media outlets.

Although certain aspects of Obama's policy on gay rights are definitely a step in the right direction, I find his relative inattention to these issues as well as his stance on gay marriage to be one of the more disappointing aspects of his campaign. As for gay marriage, Barack Obama opposes it and supports civil unions.

My objection is that the answer of civil unions does not solve the problem, it institutionalizes it. One would hope that, of all of the candidates, Obama would be most sympathetic to this issue. As a candidate who argues for the power of words, he should realize that "marriage" and "civil union" are not "just words." These words, in this context, signify segregation and inequality.

I realize that this is dangerous territory for a presidential candidate, but Obama has in the past shown that he is not afraid to take the precarious but principled path. He has shown us that he has the ability to address complicated and volatile issues in an honest and straight-forward manner. And he has shown us that he has both the capacity and the desire to engage the public in discussions of important issues. Why, then, has he let this one slide by?

Elizabeth Edwards on Obama's Health Care Plan

Elizabeth Edwards has criticized Barack Obama's healthcare plan (along with John McCain's) for not being "universal." While she is absolutely right in pointing out where Obama's plan is lacking, she fails to acknowledge that Hillary Clinton's plan also falls short of a true universal health care plan—that is, a single-payer health care plan.

The key difference in Clinton's and Obama's health care plans is in the area of mandates for adults. Clinton's plan requires that all adults purchase health insurance (it has been unclear on what sort of penalty should be applied to those who do not), while Obama's plan only requires that children be insured. Clinton has claimed that without a mandate, a significant portion of the population would remain uninsured. Obama has argued that reducing the cost of health insurance would provide enough incentive for the uninsured to seek coverage. He has also argued that Clinton's mandate is placed on the individual to purchase health insurance and not, as it should be, on the government to provide it.

Neither plan is, in my opinion, an ideal solution. Both, however, are preferable to John McCain's.

Obama on Disabilities

From Barack Obama's Plan to Empower American's With Disabilities:

Fifty-four million Americans – roughly 1 in 6 – personally experience some form of disability. And the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan continue to increase those numbers. Yet seventeen years after Congress enacted the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Americans with disabilities still do not have an equal opportunity to
fulfill the American Dream. In 2006, working-age Americans with disabilities were almost three times more
likely to live below the poverty line than those without disabilities. While the average annual household income
of individuals in the United States without disabilities was $65,400 in 2006, the average annual household
income for people with disabilities was $36,300. And the employment rate for persons with disabilities in 2006
was at least 40 points lower than the employment rate of working-age individuals without disabilities. These
dismal statistics offer evidence of severe shortcomings in our country’s efforts to break down the barriers that
exclude people with disabilities and deprive them of true equality of opportunity and independence.

Barack Obama's plan—which focuses on providing education, jobs, equal opportunity and independent living to disabled Americans—is well worth the read, and this issue is one that is of particular importance to Louisiana. According to data from 2005, an estimated 763,000 people in Louisiana (18.7% of the population over age 5) have a disability. Of those, 26.2% live below the poverty line and of Louisianians living below the poverty line, 26.0% are disabled. By comparison, 18.9% of the state's total population lives below the poverty line and 14% of those without disabilities live in poverty. This means that a Louisiana resident suffering from a disability is nearly twice as likely to live below the poverty line.